It’s been eight years since I made a permanent move back to London from Toronto. Eight. I hope that by repeating it, it will sink in as real because it’s a big number for what feels like a short amount of time.
The exact date was October 31, 2008. A few weeks later, I wrote the following blog post, titled The Day to Day. I didn’t know if I’d work in radio again, although I hoped to. I wasn’t sure what my future would bring but I was enjoying the break. My nest egg didn’t last nearly as long as I wanted it to and I was back in the morning slot within a couple of years. But it’s a moment in time, captured on these pages, and a throwback, indeed:
People ask me, they say, what do you do with your days now that you’re no longer on the radio? Let me tell you! They’re chock-a-block with this and that and the other!
Around 3:10 I wake up wondering if I’ve slept in and why no one from the radio station has called to tell me I’m late. I fall back to sleep easily, though and get up at a more human hour of 6ish.
I blog and surf and return emails. I putter around while the kitchen renovation continues, beginning around 8:30 each morning. I network and write and continue to chase (by phone) a woman whom I’m supposed to interview for a feature article but doesn’t have voice mail or, it seems, the physical power to actually answer her cellphone. There are always doodads to zip out and get for the kitchen project; magnetic closures, more knobs, a floor register. Networking needs doing (lunch and coffee dates) friends need catching up with and the house needs its usual maintenance for cleanliness and orderliness. The basement has become a catch-all for everything we don’t know what to do with yet. At the bottom of the stairs, right now, is a new motorcycle that’s never even been started! But it sure looks weird inside the house.
I’m launching a sideline venture to Lisa Brandt Creative Services and designing an ad and how the program will run.
And even though You Want Fries With That is closed for the season, there are still some business issues to be dealt with.
So even though I don’t have a “job” I’m still busy. It’s what you make it, this self-employment thing. So far it doesn’t pay very well but it’s much easier on the body. The luggage I’ve carried under my eyes for a decade is fading away. My appetite is returning to normal – it’s not constantly turned up to high. Much of the idea behind this respite (and it will not last forever, believe me) was to get back some of the health that my lifestyle had eroded. I can feel the changes already, just barely three weeks in.